scholarly journals Teaching Practices and Knowledge Base of English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Communicative Language Teaching Implementation

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Anchalee Jansem
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Pedagogical Content

This small scale study aimed at identifying (1) the characteristics of teaching practices in CLT classrooms, (2) teachers’ opinions underlying such practices, (3) their positions while adopting CLT, and (4) a knowledge base used as a framework of CLT implementation. Eight Thai teachers who regarded themselves as CLT proponents voluntarily took part in this study. Data collected via classroom observations and post-teaching semi-structured interviews indicated that CLT involved four common features including promoting ‘small talk’ in the target language, beginning the lesson with the combination of lead-in and presentation strategies, positively reacting to students’ linguistic errors, and emphasizing semi-communicative activities. The participants’ opinions underlying CLT implementation centered on playing multiple roles including lesson designers, class managers, and English users with certain levels of English proficiency. Content, pedagogical content, and subject matter knowledge served as their major elements of the knowledge base for teaching when conducting CLT lessons.

A contextualised examination of target language use in the primary school foreign language classroom

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Carless
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Classroom Language

Abstract This article discusses an issue which is of longstanding and central importance to foreign language teachers in a variety of contexts, namely teacher use of classroom language. It uses detailed qualitative case study data to explore how and why an expert practitioner uses English in her Hong Kong Primary school language classroom. Through the interplay between teacher beliefs, experiences and classroom transcript data, the paper develops a contextualised picture of classroom language use with young foreign language learners. The paper suggests that it is not necessarily the language proficiency of the learners which plays a major role in the quantity of target language use, but the teachers’ own proficiency, experience and beliefs.

scholarly journals Women's social space and the reference for breastfeeding practice

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Márcia Spanó Nakano ◽  
Márcia Cristina Guerreiro dos Reis ◽  
Maria José Bistafa Pereira ◽  
Flávia Azevedo Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Family Context ◽  
Care Model ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Breastfeeding Practice

This study aimed to identify agents or institutions taken as reference by women when breastfeeding. A qualitative study was carried out on 20 primiparous who were assisted, for reasons not related to breastfeeding, in the five health services selected by this study. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews carried out in the participants' households and were analyzed by content analysis in the thematic mode. We identified that health professionals play a standardize role of breastfeeding based on scientific knowledge. In the daily breastfeeding routine, the family is the first reference for women, transmitting beliefs, habits and behaviors. We believe in the valorization of the family context by the health professional, in which actions and interactions in the breastfeeding issue are developed in order to constitute the foundations for a new care model in breastfeeding. This model should, therefore, consider the practice diversity, adapting actions to the multiple roles of being mother/fortress/wife/worker in the social context.

scholarly journals Foreign language teacher education in psycho-pedagogical research

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-176
Author(s):  
Marianna Levrints
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The unprecedented growth in the quantity, as well as quality of publications on language teacher education supported by the domain’s increasing experiential background opens up new avenues for enhancing the effectiveness of foreign language teacher education in Ukraine. Hence, the present paper aims at analyzing and singling out recurrent research themes, defining the mainstream approaches of the field of language teacher education, which constitute the emerging theoretical foundations of the field’s knowledge base. The review of the state-of-the-art publications has enabled the specification of the following research areas, pertinent to foreign language teacher education: language teacher cognition, the knowledge base of language teachers, language teacher identity, reflection, language teacher research and action research, language teacher professionalism, the role of teacher education, effectiveness of teaching, expertise, competence, teacher development and some others. The analysis of research suggests overall proliferation of the number of studies on the problem of language teacher education during the past 30˗40 years. Nevertheless, the comparison of the volume of studies highlighting general aspects of teacher education to those specifically related to foreign/second language teacher education reveals the quantitative advantage of the former. More efforts are needed at elaborating language teacher focused issues which stem from the nature of foreign language as a discipline, the socio-cultural role of language teachers and the role of foreign language in particular. Further limitations of the field-related research base, include: 1) a rather small proportion of empirical studies, necessary to provide informed answers for important questions of language teacher education; 2) the majority of available empirical studies are small-scale and contextually limited, which excludes the possibility of generalizations; 3) the field’s overall reliance on traditions, intuition and practical experience, with little regard for theoretical foundations; 4) paucity of research that present systematic complex generalizations of the field’s knowledge base;

Environmental Aspects of Successful English Language Teaching Practices in Rural Sabah Low Enrolment Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Norazrina Ag-Ahmad ◽  
Bernadette Peter Lidadun
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Environmental Aspects

This study explores the environmental aspects or concepts underlying successful English Language Teaching (ELT) as well as the support needed and the challenges that are faced by a group of primary school teachers in the context of a low enrolment school in a rural area in Sabah, Malaysia. This study adopted an exploratory qualitative approach which involved seven English language teachers who have had more than five years of teaching experience. A set of semi-structured interview questions were formulated to elicit data on the  concepts and the conditions that could either help or hinder the incorporation of those concepts in ELT. Qualitative analysis of participants’ interview data indicated that exposure to the target language, motivation and goals were the environmental aspects of language teaching practices that   affect students’ success in second language acquisition. Support from   parents, teachers and school authorities were essential in     assimilating these aspects in the teaching practices. It was found that the participants expressed tension between what they believed to be good practices and what they were restricted to do due to contextual barriers. Among the main barriers identified in this study were changes in education policy, insufficient financial support and infrastructure as well as lack of monitoring of the execution of activities in schools. Findings in this study have important implications to policy makers and curriculum developers.

scholarly journals Critical success factors in a TRIDEM exchange

ReCALL ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIRJAM HAUCK
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
French And English

Computer-mediated-communication (CMC) tools allowing learners to be in contact with native speakers of their target language in other locations are becoming increasingly flexible, often combining different modes of communication in a single web- and internet-based environment. The literature on telecollaborative exchanges reveals, however, that online intercultural communication between language learners “often fails to achieve the intended pedagogical goals” (O’Dowd & Ritter, 2006:624) and warns that “exposure and awareness of difference seem to reinforce, rather than bridge, feelings of difference” (Kern, 2000:256). Yet, research into the reasons for lack of success in CMC-based partnership-learning has, so far, only been carried out on a relatively small scale (see, for example, Thorne, 2005, Ware, 2005, O’Dowd & Ritter, 2006). In autumn 2005, students of French at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA and adult learners of French at the Open University (OU), UK were joined by native French speakers studying for an MA in distance education at the Université de Franche Comté (UFC), France in a pilot Tridem project in which all participants worked on the completion of a series of collaborative tasks. The Tridem partners met over several weeks in an internet-mediated, audio-graphic conferencing environment. The project output, a shared reflection in French and English on cultural similarities and differences, took the form of several collaborative blogs. The paper draws on data from pre- and post-questionnaires, from the work published by the learners in the blogs and from post-treatment, semi-structured interviews with volunteer participants. Beyond considering some of the known factors influencing success and failure in CMC-based collaborations such as discrepancies in target language competence among learners, this article also explores affective issues and difficulties arising from varying levels of multimodal communicative competence. The insights gained are mapped against O’Dowd and Ritter’s (2006) ‘inventory of pitfalls’ in telecollaboration. The result is a tentative framework which allows those involved in setting up and running telecollaborative exchanges to gauge both degree and nature of some of the risks they are likely to encounter.

scholarly journals The Feasibility of Foreign Language Online Instruction During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Case Study of Instructors’ and Students’ Reflections

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Anchalee Jansem
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Online Instruction ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Structured Interviews

This small scale case study aimed at identifying the feasibility of foreign language online instruction during the abrupt change of teaching mode toward online platforms. The feasibility in this study involves the practicality and the possibility of and the concerns about language teaching and learning foreign language online as reflected by the instructors and the students. One instructor teaching as well as two students majoring each of the eight foreign languages including English, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Khmer, and Vietnamese from an autonomous university in Bangkok, Thailand, voluntarily took part in this study. Data collected via semi-structured interviews and post-interviews written reflections indicated three levels of the practicality. The data showed the conditional likeliness of the possibility to carry on online teaching. The last finding presented concerns about foreign language online instruction. Further research is needed for a more complete understanding of the effects of online foreign language instruction in different social contexts.

scholarly journals KNOWLEDGE OF ASSESSMENT: AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT IN THE PCK OF CHEMISTRY TEACHERS

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-147
Author(s):  
Marina Miyuko Akutagawa Tacoshi ◽  
Carmen Fernandez
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Chemistry Teachers ◽  
Pedagogical Content

Assessment of learning plays a central role in the teaching-learning process, and it has been extensively investigated due to the recognized necessity of adjusting didactic models to the new curricula and social demands. The knowledge of assessment is considered one of the components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) by some authors and for other authors is considered one component of the knowledge base for teaching. It is also recognized the strong link between knowledge of the educational ends, goals, purposes and values and the knowledge of assessment procedures. In this work, results focused on ten chemistry teachers are presented with the main goal of assessing and describing the knowledge of assessment practices and its close relationship with the purposes and educational aims. The results of the current study are based on semi-structured interviews, schools’ educational projects, questionnaires, evaluations and teacher lesson plans. The data suggest that there exists an inconsistency in the discourse regarding general education and chemistry education. Although the discourse at all levels, including educational projects, planning and interviews, can be considered as innovative, in actual practice we observed a strong tendency toward the teacher-centered approach and summative assessment. The results show that, in general, the investigated chemistry teachers lack the intrinsic knowledge to elaborate questions that assess students´ higher-order thinking, to use assessment results to improve teaching and learning, to inform planning, and ultimately, to perform assessments for learning that regulate and promote the learning process, in line with their own beliefs regarding the objectives of chemical education. As a result, we can infer problems in other PCK components of these teachers. Keywords: assessment, chemistry teacher education, knowledge base of teaching, pedagogical content knowledge.

scholarly journals Factors affecting pre-service teachers’ participation in asynchronous discussion: The case of Iran

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Ebrahimi ◽  
Esmail Faghih ◽  
Seyyedeh Susan Marandi
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Factors Affecting

<p>This study reports on a qualitative small-scale exploratory study which examined the factors influencing 32 Iranian pre-service language teachers’ participation in online asynchronous text-based discussion forums. By adopting a multiple case study design and analysing data gathered through semi-structured interviews and participants’ online postings, it was found that access to computers and the Internet or high speed Internet, group size, quality of messages, level of instructor’s involvement, grades, interface qualities, participants’ personal characteristics and attitudes toward online interactions, as well as familiarity and experience with online discussions influenced participants’ level of participation in online discussions. Based on the findings, recommendations are made to help language teacher educators to encourage effective online communication practices in similar educational settings.</p>

Exploring tensions in integrating core practices into initial EFL teacher education programs in the Chilean context

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110541
Author(s):  
Malba Barahona ◽  
Stephen Darwin
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Sequential Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Core Practices

Internationally, there is increasing interest in the value of incorporating core practices into second language (L2) teacher education programs. This article reports on a research project that investigated how a set core practices are integrated into the Methods courses and practicums in Chilean language teacher education programs for English as a foreign language (EFL). The study was framed by a two-stage, sequential data collection strategy based on a questionnaire ( n = 48) and semi-structured interviews ( n = 21) to university-based, Chilean English teacher educators. The questionnaire identified teaching practices in use, whilst the interviews sought to understand how teacher educators taught these identified teaching practices, as well as the rationale for these choices. Two practices – facilitating target language comprehensibility and building discourse communities – emerged as the most prominent practices. Primarily, these practices were taught through modelling, decomposing, planning and simulations. However, potentially more complex issues around translanguaging, inclusion strategies and cultural practices tended to be framed using more directive and teacher-centred pedagogies. The outcomes of the study highlight several critical issues for L2 teacher education: the relative balance between theoretical and practical domains often compounded by the lack of meaningful opportunities for authentic classroom practice; and the significant challenges faced by teacher educators by engaging in ‘practice’ in a crowded program structure.

scholarly journals Perceptions of Non-native EFL Teachers’ on L1 Use in L2 Classrooms: Implications for Language Program Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emre Debreli
Keyword(s):  
Program Development ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
English Only ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
L1 Use

<p>The study of L1 (first language) use in L2 (second language) classrooms has long received attention in the literature. Despite the considerable amount of research that has been conducted on the phenomenon, the focus has often been on the advantages and disadvantages. Considerably, less research has been conducted regarding the non-native L2 teachers’ perceptions of when L1 use is required. More importantly, there has been little research on the limitations faced by non-native EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers because of the strong English-only policies they have to follow. The present study explored the perceptions of non-native EFL teachers’ towards the existing English-only policies in their institutions. The teachers’ perceptions of when L1 should or should not be used in L2 classrooms were also of interest. Fifty-four non-native teachers of EFL from English preparatory schools of four universities in Northern Cyprus participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data indicated that all of the participating teachers were inclined to use L1 in their L2 classrooms for a variety of reasons. Further, it is found that teachers were affected negatively and were restricted in certain issues as a result of having to follow strict English-only policies at their institutions. Implications for program development are discussed here.</p>

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